AN. Here's the next chapter with a wee visit from our dearest Time Lord. There might not be much more up until after the weekend, real life is getting in the way.

Disclaimer: I don't own them.

Let me know what you think.

***

"Traded for money what some had stolen for free."

The words rang round in Vala's head. Over and over she could see herself saying them to Daniel, see that little spark in his eyes that said he had heard her but wouldn't understand until he had calmed down.

When she had climbed out of the shaft at the top of the mountain she had continued to run until her legs gave out beneath her. She briefly recalled flashing her badge at a guard on her way through the gate but it was a blur.

She knew they would come and find her, drag her back to the base and demand answers. She would have to look them all in the eye and she felt her stomach revolt at what she thought she would see there.

"Hello Boy." She hadn't heard the TARDIS materialise but she had felt the Doctors presence in her mind the second he had opened the door. "Where's Donna?"

"Home. Visiting her grandfather." He sat down beside her. Neither of them looked away from the view in front of them. Vala had ended up beside a small pond, trees surrounded it and a few birds sang out from them. The Doctor let out a long slow breath; he really wasn't good at this kind of thing. He was saved from having to say anything by Vala.

"How did you know to come and find me?" For the first time since he had arrived she looked at him.

"The TARDIS, she felt your pain."

"Why did I think this would be a good idea?" she sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Why did I think that none of it would matter now, or that he would understand?"

The Doctor shuffled around and pulled the sonic screwdriver from his pocket. He fiddled with the setting for a moment then ran it over Vala's arm. "That'll block the signal of your transmitter, for a while." She looked at him with a question in her eyes. "Thought you could do with some time to yourself."

They sat there for a while in comfortable silence, simply watching the world go by. When the wind picked up slightly some leaves blew past them, Vala stuck out her hand and caught one, she stared at it and slowly it began to change from red back to green as she manipulated time around it.

"I can still do it, if I concentrate, I guess the Chameleon Arch and the Meta-crises didn't work as well as I hoped." She gave him a sad smile as he reached out and did the same with some of the passing leaves. "I remember teaching you how to do that. You where such a curious child, into everything."

"That's not the only thing you taught me, you taught me to look into the time lines and find what I wanted to see." He chuckled "You where always better at it than me." She nodded at him to continue, she could tell where he was going with this. "I saw you, as a human. What you did, what you suffered through."

"Do you hate me?" Her voice was so small and afraid, so different from the confident woman he remembered.

"What? Hate you? Never. What you did, well wouldn't say you're up for sainthood any time soon but… you know what? A very wise old woman once told me that the destination is sometimes more important than the journey."

She smiled and hit him on the shoulder. "Less of the old boy, and it's the other way about. Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination." She shook her head in amusement. "You never did listen to a thing anyone else said."

They sat and watched as the sun sunk beneath the horizon, both of them thinking of another world with two suns that they would never see again.

As the last rays disappeared Vala sighed "Turn it back on again, it's time to stop running." As she said the last part she gave the Doctor a hard look, he ignored her and brought his sonic screwdriver back out.

"Do you want me to wait with you?"

She shook her head. "No, off you go. Go get Donna and do something fantastic. I want to hear all about it the next time you're on Earth." The Doctor embraced her in a tight hug before retreating to the TARDIS and going to find his companion.

Vala lay back and listened as the TARDIS dematerialised.

She waited and watched the stars.

***

It was Teal'c that found her some time later. She hadn't moved from her position lying on her back and he stood over her, having to lean forward slightly to enter her field of vision.

Neither of them said anything for a moment, Vala was the first to crack.

"I've got to tell you muscles, this isn't a very attractive angle, I can see right up your nose."

"You must return to the SGC with me Vala Mal Doran." His voice was the same as ever and Vala couldn't tell what he was thinking.

She ignored his comment. "It's so peaceful out here, don't you think? No noise, no people, nothing." She paused for a moment "Are they terribly mad?"

Still standing over her Teal'c didn't bother to raise his eyebrow at her; she wouldn't be able to see. "I believe Daniel Jackson is the only person who is mad my friend. The rest are concerned for your safety and state of mind. It is most out of character for you to strike out physically at a team mate."

While Vala was a very physical person it was usually with words that she would strike out, especially at Daniel. She knew words could do more damage than physical action ever could.

Vala let out a long slow breath and stood up. "I don't want pity Teal'c; I've had enough of that to last a life time."

Teal'c nodded and began walking back to the main road. When they got there he indicated to the Airman in the jeep that he and Vala would walk back to base.

Teal'c was concerned for his friend and knew that the walk back to base would calm her down and allow her to talk out her feelings. He understood her perhaps better than anyone else at the SGC, it was why he had come to collect her on his own. The rest of SG1 would push her to talk about what had happened and he knew Vala would use that to her own advantage. She knew how to turn there well meaning attempts into an argument, how to get them angry at her, she had spent a good deal of her human life dealing with other people's anger and it didn't scare her anymore. She was far more afraid of someone seeing what she was truly feeling, of someone seeing the real Vala and not the act.

Teal'c knew if he simply allowed her to speak in her own time it would be much more effective. All he had to do was listen. It was the mistake that Daniel had made earlier, he had simply gone in and confronted Vala head on, forgetting how she would react.

They walked along the road sharing a comfortable silence, Teal'c knew it wouldn't last long; Vala never was one for keeping quiet for long. He was right.

"What difference should it make to them anyway, what I did before I got here is none of their business." She kicked a stone along the ground in front of her. "They've got no right to judge me; until they've lived that life they can't know what its like." Another kick to the stone "I never killed anyone who didn't try to kill me first; I didn't steal from people who didn't have anything." At his raised eye brow Vala amended. "Well apart from that once. I might have done some things that they would consider morally unsound but there are far worse people than me out there." A shudder ran through her at a memory Teal'c couldn't see. "But does that matter to him? No, of course not. I've spent so long trying to change for him, trying to be who he thought I could be, and I thought I had but sometimes it seems like it will never be enough. No matter what I do I'll never be good enough" Teal'c didn't comment on her change from talking about the team to talking about Daniel. "He was the first person to believe in me in so long, to tell me I could be something better." A sadness crept into her tone "I was a fool to believe him, stupid to think I could be anything more than I was. I'm just damaged goods, a broken half person."

It struck Teal'c how often she must have heard those words. How many people had told her she was never going to amount to anything, that she was somehow broken beyond repair? Too many, he surmised.

"I do not believe you to be damaged my friend, you often display courage and spirit that few others could match."

A gentle but sad smile crossed her lips "Thank you Teal'c, but the bad stuff is always easier to believe than the good." She curled her small arm around his huge bicep and leant her head against it. "I really thought I could make a new start now, I thought I belonged to something, all of me; past present and hopefully a future too." She gave him a bitter laugh. "No one wants someone like me in their 'family', seems it's taken this lot longer to realise that than most. Stupid humans" The last part was muttered under her breath.

Teal'c stopped and turned to face her. They where almost at the front gate to the SGC and he wanted to reassure her before they went back in.

"It is an old Jaffa saying that 'our family has whole bits where we are broken and we have strong bits where they are weak.' Do you understand my friend." He added an extra emphasis on the friend part; it could never help to remind her again that that was what she was.

She nodded her head in response, showing him she understood, and the set off once again for the gate.

For the moment, at least, Teal'c was sure his job was done.